In a non-totalitarian regime, then, the pressure would be mostly societal on people capable of having children. The pressure of "you're our last hope for the human race" kinda thing - pushing those people to have children, and to keep them healthy. I could see on the positive end of families/groups considering children born to be "everyone's" in a certain way, with a whole horde of aunt and uncle neutrals pitching in to make sure the next generation remains healthy.
Then there would be resentment among those who can't bear children, and I imagine there would be a black market development of people selling their children to wealthier families who desperately want their own chance at a child...hrm, I really don't like the idea of children as commodities (as a society-wide notion) but it does happen on a small scale, even now (and it's not like they're treated as commodities, for the most part, by adoptive parents; it's just the process by which they're obtained that's a bit cold-blooded to me).
What prompts a baby boom, anyway? I know WWII prompted one, where so many soldiers returned home longing for stability and peace and family - all the things that they'd been fighting for. The US baby boom lasted 17 years; Japan's (in the 80's, I think) lasted only three. If there were a massive baby boom like that again *and* predicted natural disaster on the horizon, would only the totalitarian states - (like China, North Korea, Soviet Union) which have control over so much of the people's lives - be the ones with the capability to forestall a continued increase in population against oncoming resource deficits?
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Date: 22 Nov 2004 10:52 pm (UTC)Then there would be resentment among those who can't bear children, and I imagine there would be a black market development of people selling their children to wealthier families who desperately want their own chance at a child...hrm, I really don't like the idea of children as commodities (as a society-wide notion) but it does happen on a small scale, even now (and it's not like they're treated as commodities, for the most part, by adoptive parents; it's just the process by which they're obtained that's a bit cold-blooded to me).
What prompts a baby boom, anyway? I know WWII prompted one, where so many soldiers returned home longing for stability and peace and family - all the things that they'd been fighting for. The US baby boom lasted 17 years; Japan's (in the 80's, I think) lasted only three. If there were a massive baby boom like that again *and* predicted natural disaster on the horizon, would only the totalitarian states - (like China, North Korea, Soviet Union) which have control over so much of the people's lives - be the ones with the capability to forestall a continued increase in population against oncoming resource deficits?
Hrmmmm. Must go eat chocolate and ponder.